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SMASHER AND KICKUP 









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Smasher kicked and bucked and jumped around 



















Smasher and Kickup 


By 

Ml and C. W. Gauss 

\\ 

Co-Author and Artist of 
BOOK OF THE WOODS 
BANG Of The Diamond Tail 
FIRECRACKER ,, The Wild Bronco 
KICKAPOO, The Fighting Bronco 




JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS 

albertXwhitman 

Gr' 4 CO 

CHICAGO 
19 3 9 




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Copyright, 1939, by 
ALBERT WHITMAN & COMPANY 


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Lithographed in the U.S.A. 


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SMASHER AND KICKUP 


A YOUNG colt ran beside his mother on the open 
Texas prairie. All around him were white¬ 
faced cows and calves, eating the long grass. 
When the sun went down, the coyotes came out of 
their holes in the ground and began to howl, “Ow~ 
w-w-w!” 

Sometimes the cowboys came galloping, galloping, 
galloping over the prairie. They guided the cows and 
horses to the places where the finest grass grew. The 
colt’s mother made him go along with the other 
horses. She wanted him to be a good bronco, for she 
knew that good broncos got along well, but bad bron¬ 
cos got into trouble. 

The colt did not like to mind the cowboys. He did 
not want to be a good bronco. He wanted to kick. So 
he laughed at his mother, “Hee! Hee!” And all day 
long he practiced kicking. 


5 




The young colt grew very fast and soon he was big 
and strong. One day a young horse came. His name 
was Kickup. He was not a good horse, but he seemed 
to get along all right. The colt thought it would be 
fun to run away with Kickup. When the colt’s mother 
was not looking, he and Kickup ran away together. 
At first they had a good time. They ate sweet grass 
by the water holes. They slept in long grass bright 
with red and blue flowers. 

One day while they were lying in the long grass, 
they heard cowboys galloping, galloping, galloping. 
They got up quickly and Kickup jumped very high. 
He snorted in a way that meant, “Run!” He thought 
that the cowboys wanted to ride him. Whenever they 
tried to ride him, he always kicked and bucked, and 
then the cowboys whipped him with their quirts. So 
again Kickup ran away, and the young colt ran with 
him. 











f 


The cowboy had caught him 





























They ran down the hill to a water hole, where they 
hid in some weeds. The colt peeped through the 
weeds and saw the two cowboys coming toward him. 
Right away he splashed through the water and started 
to run again. Kickup jumped over the water hole and 
ran along with him. 

Soon the cowboys were in front of Kickup and the 
colt, heading them off. Kickup tried to run past the 
cowboys, but they would not let him. So he planted 
his feet firmly in the ground and squealed in a way 
which meant, “I won’t!” 

The colt had four white feet and a white nose. He 
planted his white front feet just as Kickup did. Then 
he began to squeal as Kickup did, through his white 
nose. His squeal also meant, “I won’t! I won’t!” 

One of the cowboys took a rope and whirled it 
around his head. The colt was afraid, for he thought 
the cowboy was going to hurt him. But the rope fell 
on the ground around the colt’s foot. 

Kickup started to run very fast. The colt tried to 
follow him, but he fell down on the ground before 
he could take a step. The cowboy had caught him 
with his rope. 

The two cowboys were rounding up horses. The 


colt was not quite old enough for work, so they de¬ 
cided to look at him carefully and then leave him on 
the range until he was a little older. 

Cowboys think it is a bad sign for a horse to have 
white feet. If a bronco has four white feet he is likely 
to be bad. If he has four white feet and a white nose, 
too, then he is sure to be very bad indeed. 

One of the cowboys was a young boy named Mike. 
He and the older cowboy got off their horses in order 
to have a closer look at the colt. The older cowboy 
repeated a verse that all cowboys knew: 

“Four white hoofs and a white nose! 

Take off his skin and feed him to the crows.” 

Mike took the rope from the colt’s legs and said 
to him, “All right, little bronc; you may go now.” 

The cold stood on his four white feet and started 
to kick. His heels hit Mike on the arm and knocked 
him down on the ground. “Why, you little smasher!” 
said Mike, as he got up. 

The young colt now had a name. From this time 
on, the cowboys would all call him Smasher. 

Smasher ran as fast as he could, and soon he 
reached Kickup. Then Smasher and Kickup jumped 
and kicked to their hearts’ content. They ran off 
across the prairie and no one saw them for weeks. 


9 



Kickup liked to jump fences and get into mischief. 
One dark night he took Smasher to a place where 
there was a cook-wagon. This is the wagon where 
the cook gets the meals for the cowboys. 

Smasher and Kickup broke the steps of the cook- 
wagon. Then they broke open a box of apples and 
jumped on them as they rolled out of the box. Smasher 
thought this was fun. 

When it grew light, the cook came along and saw 
the bad horses and what they had done. He called 
his dog, who barked and growled at the two bad 
horses. Kickup jumped over a fence into the road, 
and Smasher came right after him. The dog did not 
chase them, for he was afraid of the kicks from their 
heels. 

So they trotted up the road. Now and then Kick¬ 
up would laugh, “Hee! Hee! Hee!” It seemed as if 
he said, “He can’t catch me.” 


10 












DANGER 






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The big lion gave a dreadful roar 

































































































































Before they had gone very far, Smasher began to 
smell something queer. It was not like anything he 
had ever smelled before. He sniffed the wind again. 
It was not a coyote that he smelled, but he knew that 
it was some other wild animal. Then he saw that 
Kickup was frightened too; he was trembling all over. 
When Kickup started to run up the road, Smasher 
followed him as fast as he could go. 

Soon a truck came along. Smasher and Kickup 
were not afraid of automobiles and trucks, for they 
had seen them many times. But this truck was not 
like those they had seen before. One side was made 
of iron wire, and behind the wire there was a cat-like 
animal that was almost as big as a cow. This animal 
was a circus lion. 

A pair of wild, yellow eyes looked out at the two 
broncos. The big lion gave a dreadful roar and start¬ 
ed to jump at Smasher and Kickup. The broncos were 
more frightened than ever. They jumped over another 
fence and ran and ran until they reached the open 
prairie. Even here they did not feel safe. The strange 
wild animal might come after them any minute. So 
they kept on running until they reached the corral of 
the ranch where Mike worked. 


12 


Soon Mike and the older cowboy came out to the 
corral. 

“Look at these horses, Mike,” said the older cow¬ 
boy. “They have been frightened by something.” 

“The one with four white feet and a white nose is 
Smasher,” said Mike. “He belongs to this ranch, and 
now I believe he is big enough to ride.” 

Mike chased Kickup away. Nobody wanted such a 
mean bronco. Then he said to Smasher, “You are al¬ 
most grown, Smasher, so I am going to ride you.” 

Mike took his rope and caught him, just as he had 
caught him when he was a very young bronco. 
Smasher planted his feet and stood very still. Be¬ 
cause he was frightened, Mike easily saddled him. He 
thought that he was a good bronco now, so he started 
to get on his back. But Smasher wasn’t really a good 
bronco, for he put down his head and began to buck, 
just as Kickup always did. 


13 







Smasher kicked and bucked and jumped around 
until he threw Mike on the ground. Then he made a 
noise that sounded like laughter, “Hee! Hee! Hee! 
Hee!” 

When Mike got on him again, Smasher played the 
meanest trick of all. It was a trick he had learned 
from Kickup. He started to lie down and roll. Mike 
jumped off quickly, the moment he saw what Smash¬ 
er was going to do. Smasher rolled on the saddle and 
broke it, and he kicked and kicked and kicked. As 
soon as he got up, Mike got right back in the saddle 
again. 

Mike saw that Smasher was still a bad bronco. He 
knew that there was only one way to handle him. He 


14 








must work with Smasher until the bronco was too 
tired to be bad. 

So Mike did not whip Smasher, because that would 
have made him worse. He just kept on riding him. 
At last Smasher was too tired to kick and buck and 
roll over. Then Mike was able to ride him all around 
the corral. 

When Mike got off, Smasher hung his head. He was 
angry, and his eyes looked all white. Mike tried to 
pat his head. “Good old Smasher,” he said. But 
Smasher was still angry, and he tried to bite Mike’s 
hand. 

“Maybe you really are a bad bronco,” said Mike, 
as he pulled his hand away. 


15 












Smasher was kept in the corral, and each day Mike 
tried to train him. After a while he had taught the 
bronco to help him rope calves. Smasher thought this 
was fun, for he liked to chase things. The only trou¬ 
ble was that sometimes he would not let Mike ride 
him at all. One day Mike’s boss said to him, “If that 
horse would always let you ride him, he would be all 
right; but you can’t use a bronco like that in roping 
calves.” 

Mike liked Smasher, and he wanted him to be a 
good bronco. “If you don’t behave, Smasher, the boss 
will turn you out. Then somebody will catch you and 
sell you to the lion-keeper to feed to the lions.” 

For several days Smasher was a very good bronco 
indeed. Then he got tired of staying inside the corral. 
He started to kick it to pieces. The boss came out and 
tried to stop him. But Smasher wouldn’t stop. 

So the boss said, “All right then, Smasher. We 
can’t keep you any longer.” He opened the gate of 
the corral and turned Smasher out. Smasher was glad 
to be free again. He ran and jumped and squealed. 

The older cowboy laughed and he repeated the old 
rhyme again, 

“Four white hoofs and a white nose! 

Take off his skin and feed him to the crows.” 


16 


There were many herds of wild horses on the Texas 
prairie. Near the ranch there was a herd of such very 
bad broncos that the cowboys called them “The Gang.” 

The king of the Gang was a big black horse with 
a long, heavy mane. As Smasher ran away from the 
ranch he heard the king whinnying; so he jumped over 
a small arroyo and ran to join the gang. An arroyo is 
a kind of ditch. 

When Smasher came near the Gang he saw that 
Kickup had joined them too. Kickup was learning 
meaner tricks all the time. At night he went with the 
Gang to the grain fields near the river. The wild 
horses thought it was great fun to trample down the 
grain. 

They did other mean things too. When they saw 
horses working hard they would all start whinnying. 
Then, sometimes, the work horses broke out of their 
harness and ran off, trying to reach the Gang. 

After he joined the Gang, Smasher soon learned all 
these tricks. 




The farmers did not see any fun in these tricks of 
Smasher and the Gang. They did not like to have their 
grain spoiled. They did not like to have wild broncos 
whinny to their work teams and cause runaways. 

Soon it was winter, but in that part of Texas there 
was very little snow. The grass was green all the year 
round. The circus man always brought his animals 
to spend the winter there. He had a farm where he 
kept his lions and elephants and monkeys. 

When the animals were all settled on the farm, the 
lion-keeper went around to see the farmers. “I want 
to buy some horses that are of no use to you, to feed 
the lions. I can pay five dollars for each one.” 

“We could not possibly sell you our horses,” the 
farmers told him. “But there is a gang of wild broncos 
on the prairie, and they are always causing trouble. 
If we can catch one of them we will let you know and 
you can come after him.” 

One night, as the wild horses were trotting together 


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They noticed a very peculiar smell 






























































































along the road, they noticed a very peculiar smell. 
Smasher was badly frightened, for he remembered 
this smell. It was the same one that he and Kickup 
had noticed when they met the lion truck in the road. 

The king of the Gang knew right away that dan¬ 
ger was near. In the moonlight his eyeballs gleamed 
like fire. He must lead the broncos away from danger 
as quickly as possible. With the Gang close behind 
him, he jumped a fence and ran toward the wild 
prairie. Smasher trembled and shuddered. Every time 
the wind moved the tall grass, he thought the lion was 
there. 

The horses ran for a long time across the open 
prairie. Finally they came to another farm. There was 
no strange smell around this farm, so they jumped the 
fence and went straight to the corncrib. 

Smasher started to kick the door of the corncrib to 
pieces. He broke one board, and then he couldn’t get 
his foot out. It had gotten caught in the hole that he 
himself had made. 

Just at that moment a police dog came from the 
house and began to bark loudly, calling the men. Be¬ 
fore the men could get there, the broncos had all run 
away. All except Smasher and he could not pull his 
foot loose. 


20 


When the men came, they went at once to look at 
Smasher. They had to break another board in order 
to get his foot loose. Then they put a rope bridle 
around his neck and put him in the corral. Smasher 
squealed all the time, as if to say, “I wont stay here.” 
But nobody paid any attention to him. 

Smasher was all alone in the corral and he began to 
feel scared. The other wild horses in the Gang were 
now far away, and Smasher did not know what was 
going to happen to him. The tall windmill near the 
corral kept going around and around—squeak, squeak, 
squeak. The noise made Smasher angry, for the 
windmill seemed to be making fun of him. He would 
like to get out of the corral and smash the windmill 
all to pieces. 

After awhile a man came along in an automobile. 
The minute the man came into the corral, Smasher 
began running around madly, trying to get out. The 
man’s clothes had that same wild animal smell which 
had frightened Smasher and Kickup twice before. 

The strange man grabbed Smasher’s bridle rope 
and dragged him out to the road. He tied Smasher to 
the back of the automobile and then started the car. 

The automobile went slowly, so that Smasher could 
keep up with it. Before long they came to the circus 


21 



farm, which was marked by a large yellow sign: 

Winter Quarters of the Big Show 
KEEP OUT 

Smasher wanted to keep out, but the man did not 
stop. He drove right into the farm and kept on going 
until he came to a group of cages. In one of these 
cages Smasher saw some queer animals that looked 
like hairy black bugs but were as large as small dogs. 
They were monkeys and they ran up and down the 
wire netting of their cage, holding on with their little 
black hands. They had funny little faces, and they 
chattered at Smasher as if they were old friends. 

Not far away there was a large cage, shut in with 
strong iron bars. Walking up and down in this pen was 
the huge cat that Smasher and Kickup had seen on 
the road. She glared at Smasher with her wild, yellow 
eyes. 

Suddenly she tried to jump at him. The bronco 
squealed in terror, and he trembled all over. Smasher 
did not know that this huge cat could not get out of 












They ran up and down the wire netting of their cage 




















































The man got out of his automobile and led Smash¬ 
er into a corral. Smasher could not see the lion now, 
but he could smell her. He ran around and around, 
trying to find the gate where he had come in. But 
the man had locked the gate, so Smasher could not get 
out. By this time he was very frightened and also very 
angry, so he started to kick the corral down. He 
kicked and kicked until his white hind feet were sore; 
but this fence was much too strong for him. 

Smasher hung his head over the fence. He won¬ 
dered what would happen to him next. He seemed to 
be all alone, without a friend in the world. 

In the middle of the night, Smasher heard a fierce 
sound. He began to tremble all over, for he knew that 
this sound was the roaring of the lion. Suddenly he 
thought of Mike, the cowboy who had been kind to 
him. Smasher whinnied and called for a long time, but 
no one came. 

Finally the lion stopped roaring, and after awhile it 
was day again. But at every puff of wind from the 
direction of the lion’s cage, Smasher trembled and 
whinnied. He knew that danger was very near. 

Mike had often thought about Smasher and won¬ 
dered what had happened to him. That very morning 
the boss of the ranch had said to Mike, “Did you hear 
about Smasher, the bad bronco? He broke up a farm- 


24 


er’s corncrib, and the farmer sold him to the lion- 
keeper.” 

Mike felt sad at this. “Oh, please buy him back,” 
he begged, “and let him come home.” 

“I will not have a bad bronco around, but if you 
can make him behave, I will buy Smasher from the 
lion-keeper and save him from the lion.” 

Mike wanted to buy Smasher himself, but he didn’t 
have the money. He worked at the ranch to get food 
and clothes and schoolbooks. 

Later in the day the boss said, “I have a plan, Mike. 
There is to be a winter rodeo, and boys under six¬ 
teen will all try to rope calves. The circus man is a 
friend of mine, so I will ask him to lend Smasher to 
you for the rodeo. If you can ride that bad bronco and 
rope a calf in the rodeo, I shall know that he is going 
to behave and I’ll buy him back.” 

The circus man was quite willing for Mike to borrow 
Smasher. The boss told Mike to go to the circus farm 
and get Smasher. “But,” he added, “I’m afraid he will 
behave very badly at the rodeo.” 

Mike loved Smasher and had faith in him. He felt 
sure that Smasher would help him to win the rodeo 
contest. 

Mike thought and thought, and finally he worked 
out a plan to make Smasher behave. He took some 


25 



straw from the lion’s cage and put it in a tin can and 
shut the lid tight. He knew that if Smasher smelled 
that straw it would not be hard to make him do any¬ 
thing that he wanted. 

When Mike came to take him from the corral, 
Smasher was still badly scared. He always behaved 
very well when he was frightened, so he did not kick 
or squeal at all. He let Mike get on his back and ride 
him away from the circus farm. 

By the time they reached the rodeo they were far 
away from the circus farm and the huge cat with wild, 
yellow eyes. Smasher felt safe again, so he began to act 
very badly. He laid back his ears and squealed. Ev¬ 
eryone who saw him said, “There’s a bad bronco.” 

Mike put him in a pen with many other broncos. 
When the older cowboy saw him, he sang out, 

“Take off his skin and feed him to the crows.” 

Soon the rodeo man shouted, “Calf-roping race.” 

The first boy in the contest rode into the arena, and 
a calf was let in through the gate. The boy threw his 


26 






rope very skillfully, but he just missed the calf, which 
galloped off. 

One after another, four more boys tried. They all 
had good broncos, who understood what the boys were 
doing and tried their best to help. But every calf got 
away. 

After all the other boys had tried, the rodeo man 
said, “Mike Brady is here with Smasher. Mike will 
now try to rope a calf.” 

Mike was all ready and he started to get on Smash¬ 
er. But this naughty bronco opened his mouth and 
squealed, as if to say, “I won’t.” 

“Smasher,” said Mike, “do you want to go back to 
that lion farm?” 

But Smasher kept right on squealing. The boss 
came up to him then. “Mike, I told you that that 
bronco would not let you ride.” 

Mike knew that it was time to try his plan on Smash¬ 
er. He got the tin can and took out the straw that had 
come from the lion’s cage. 


27 




He put the straw under Smasher’s nose. When 
Smasher recognized that lion smell, he went close to 
Mike, trembling all over. He was frightened now, 
and he was willing to let Mike ride him. 

Just as Mike rode into the arena on Smasher, a 
large calf was let in through the gate. The calf 
bawled and bellowed as it tried desperately to get 
away from the bronco. Better than anything else in 
the world, Smasher liked to chase calves; so he dashed 
after it and headed it off. Mike’s rope swished in the 
air. Then everyone in the grandstand stood up and 
shouted, for Mike had caught the calf. Mike jumped 
off his horse and quickly tied the calf’s legs, so that 
it could not get up. 

Mike stood up and waved his cowboy hat as the 
judge announced, “Mike Brady is the only boy who 
has roped a calf, so I am happy to give him the prize 
of ten dollars.” 

The boss was very proud of Mike. “I will keep 
my promise and buy Smasher back,” he said. “If I 
were you, Mike, I should use the prize money to buy 
a good saddle.” 

The older cowboy was very curious. “What did 
you do with those pieces of straw, Mike?” he asked. 

“That’s a secret between Smasher and me,” an¬ 
swered Mike mysteriously. 


28 


Mike put Smasher into the corral and then let him 
smell the straw again. Smasher did not try to kick 
the corral to pieces. He did not even want to run 
away; all he wanted was to stay near Mike, and far 
away from the lion with the wild, yellow eyes. 

In the middle of the night, Mike heard Smasher 
whinnying as if he were afraid. So Mike went out 
and talked quietly to him, while Smasher kept close 
to the fence where Mike stood. 

After Mike gave Smasher some hay and corn the 
next morning, he got on his back and took a ride. 
Smasher didn’t object at all. After this, Mike rode 
the bronco quite often. Sometimes Smasher acted 
as if he had forgotten about the lion; but now and 
then he would plant his feet and squeal. Then all 
Mike had to do was to get the straw and let Smasher 
smell it again. 

By the end of a week, Mike did not have to use 
the straw any more. Smasher let him ride whenever 
he wanted to. The boy could rope calves from the 
bronco’s back, or round up big steers on the prairie. 
When any other cowboy tried to ride him though, 
Smasher would lie down and roll. 

“Take care, Mike,” warned the older cowboy. 
“Smasher is still a bad bronco. Some day he is 
sure to run away.” 


29 


When spring came, Mike took Smasher on the 
roundup. 

“If Smasher sees his old Gang,” said the older 
cowboy, “he will run away to join them and you’ll 
never see him again.” 

“Smasher knows I like him,” answered Mike, “he 
will stay close to me.” 

When it grew dark, the cowboys made camp. First 
they hobbled the horses by tying their front legs to¬ 
gether. A hobbled bronco cannot go far from camp. 
Then they built a fire and cooked a supper of steak, 
dried apples, hot flapjacks, and coffee. Soon after 
eating, they lay down on the ground to sleep. 

Smasher hadn’t forgotten all his old tricks, and 
he soon worked his front legs free. It was a dark 
night, without a moon. Out on the open prairie, the 
coyotes called, “Ow-w-w!” They were afraid to come 
close to the broncos, for cow ponies are always good 
kickers. The circus had long ago moved away from 
its farm. The lion was hundreds of miles away, so 
there was nothing to make a horse afraid. 

Suddenly, out of the dark night there came a loud 
whinny. The black king was calling all horses to 
come and join the Gang. Mike did not hear this 
whinny, for he was sound asleep. He did not know 
that the Gang was calling. 


30 



“Good old Smasher,” said Mike 




But Smasher heard the whinnying and he began 
thinking of old times. He remembered racing with 
the Gang against the wind. He thought about tram¬ 
pling the fields and kicking down fences and calling 
to the work horses, to make them run away. 

The black king whinnied again. Smasher sniffed 
the wind; he could smell the wild horses. He called 
to them, and soon a wild horse came running toward 
him. It was his old partner, Kickup. 

Smasher jumped over an arroyo and started to¬ 
ward the wild horses. Then suddenly, he stopped and 
turned around. Smasher loved Mike. A bronco al¬ 
ways loves the cowboy who can conquer and ride him. 
At the same time, Smasher wanted to be free and to 
run with the Gang once more. 

The black king called again. This time Mike 
heard him. He roused from his sleep and said, “Hey, 
Smasher!” 

Smasher only squealed in answer. 

Then Mike whistled. When Smasher heard that 
familiar whistle, he turned away from the Gang and 
went back to Mike. The cowboy stroked him gently. 
“Good old Smasher,” said Mike. 

At that moment both boy and horse knew that 
Smasher would never again run away from his friend. 
Smasher was a good bronco now. 


32 















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